Full Throttle

Owen Kelly will be leaving Australia this week (Tuesday) on a flight headed to North Carolina and his eventual home in Mooresville, NC.

Following in the footsteps of fellow Tasmanian Marcos Ambrose Kelly has signed a development contract with JR Motorsports with the eventual goal of competing alongside Ambrose in one of NASCAR’s top three series’.

Kelly, 30, raced in the last four rounds of the Australian V8 Supercar Championship last year and has been signed by Ford Performance Racing to co- drive at the Bathurst 1000 and Phillip Island 500 this year. Interestingly, Kelly may butt heads with Boris “Bobsled Hero” Said who has been signed by Paul Morris Motorsports to drive in the same two events.

Kelly’s not a total rookie to NASCAR style of racing, after testing successfully with another team last year. With help from Ambrose, Kelly drove four races for former NASCAR driver Robert Pressley in 2007 a similar category to the Late Model series he will race this year.

Earnhardt Jr. visited Australia in December and attended the final round of the Australian V8 Supercar Championship, in which Kelly was racing.

He later spent several days on the Gold Coast with Kelly’s then team owner Paul Morris, which included testing a V8 Supercar.

“We struck up a friendship on the Gold Coast and I told Junior what I had been doing last year, he invited me over, and it grew from there,” Kelly said. “I’m really excited about racing in America - it’s a huge opportunity,” he said.

Kelly is the son of former Tasmanian speedway legend Chas Kelly, who raced super sedans, sprintcars and Grand National sedans.

NASCAR fans be forewarned, if he makes it up the ladder to NASCAR’s top tier he’s a “Smoke” in the making. He will always tell you “how it is” rather than what he thinks you want to hear.